There are, currently, a variety of paints and protective coatings available in the market, which are useful for applying onto surfaces of buildings and structures. Presently these paints and coatings are manufactured in factories and supplied in several pack sizes and grades. The customer has to be content by selecting the readymade paints or coatings from the limited choice of pack sizes, quality and price range available in the market. The customer cannot select the precise quantity required or the precise price range based on his/her own preferences.
Presently paints and coatings are manufactured in bulk in plants and are distributed in different size packs through distributors and retailers. For a particular grade of paint, a minimum bulk back size has to be made. Inventory of different grades of readymade paints has to be maintained. Sometimes, non-moving stock may lead to dead stock & expiry of shelf life.
Currently there is no system—apparatus or process—by which a customer can select the ingredients and manufacture the desired quality of the paint of his/her choice at a cost, which he/she can afford. In the present times, the customization is limited to the selection of colours for standard quality/grade of Base Paint. Base paint of few standard types is manufactured in a factory and it is used for colouring. It is not possible to alter the properties of the base paint through this tinting/colouring device. Customer can choose a particular shade from thousands of shades of colour as shown on the displayed shade card. This chosen colour is entered into Automatic Colourant Dispensing Machine, which dispenses colourants into pre-filled base paint containers to create the desired colour. Colourant quantity for particular base paint and shade is stored in the computer.
If a customer's paint colour needs to match a particular sample colour, then this sample colour is read by spectrophotometer and colour value is determined. This colour value is then converted by colour matching program of machine to produce a recipe of colourants to achieve this colour for the Base Paint. These colourants are dispensed by machine into the base paint to create the desired colour.
The applicants being in the field of manufacture of paints and coatings, thought about the advantages of providing a system—apparatus/process—which will facilitate manufacture of paint having customer's choice of properties and at affordable cost, at the point of sale, (such as the shop of the retailer or stockist). A system for the manufacture of customized paint with infinitely variable combination of properties and at a cost desired by the customer is currently not available. Therefore, the invention for which protection is sought for in this application is novel.
In other words, by providing a system, which will facilitate instant manufacturing of customized paint at the point of purchase, the customer will be placed in an advantageous position, because, such a system will help the customer to select a combination of functional parameters of the paint, price range for the paint and quantity of paint whereby the device with the help of embedded control system will determine the exact proportion in which the ingredients are to be mixed and dispensed, and carry out the mixing process, then dispense the paint immediately.
Recognizing the importance of such a system namely, a device/process, the applicants took up research & development work to develop a device/process for instant manufacture of customized paint.
Therefore, the main objective of the present invention is to provide a device for instant manufacture of customized paint by choosing from infinitely variable combination of properties.